Chances are you have a roll or two of masking tape kicking around the house, but did you know you can turn it into a fun activity for kids? At my house, we’ve been going through masking tape like nobody’s business and my little ones are happier than ever. Here’s how you can use it.

Masking Tape Fun

All these activities just use regular, white masking tape. The reason this stuff is so amazing is that it sticks well, but comes off without ripping paint or leaving a residue. In short, it’s perfect for temporary games and playtime.

1. Make a Masking Tape City

My youngest son was recently fussing about being bored. I pulled out his road tape and made a road on the bedroom floor, but it ran out after a few feet. He was so disappointed, so I grabbed regular masking tape and created a full on city on the bedroom floor. Within minutes, he was driving his cars and setting up his toy houses, totally occupied. He’s been playing with it a couple of days now, and is still fascinated.

You can do any design you like. We only had the narrow type of masking tape, so I did two rows of everything to make the roads, but if you have wider tape, you can easily just do one row. Try making a grid on the floor and have a couple of roads that wind out. This doesn’t have to be perfect. Your kids will love having a place to drive their cars. It will stick for some time and when you’re done or ready for a new layout, just pull up the tape!

2. Toy Bandages

As a child, I was obsessed with playing doctor or nurse with my stuffed animals. My mom would fill an old pill bottle with raisins for pills and give us popsicle sticks, but the best part was the bandages. She made these from masking tape and cotton balls and then decorated them with markers. It was so much fun!

To make your own toy bandages, put down a piece of parchment paper or wax paper and lay out cotton balls on it (you can also use folded bits of toilet paper or paper towel). Cut lengths of masking tape to cover the cotton and leave enough to stick out on either side. Now decorate with crayons or markers . . . dots, hearts, stripes, and stars work just fine. Half the fun is in decorating! Then let your kids stick them on everything.

3. The Shape Game

Using masking tape, you can create some fun games, too! Try making different shapes around the house and then call out the shape and have your toddlers run to stand on the correct shape. For older kids, you can do something more complicated, writing numbers with masking tape and then calling out math problems. They can run to stand on the correct answer to win!

Alternatively, make your shapes in a row (this works well in narrow spaces) and have kids toss toys to land in the shape you call out. The highest number of correct shapes wins.

4. Make a Sticky Spider Web

Criss cross the tape in a doorway to create a funky spider web. Then give your kids balls of crumpled paper to toss at the web and see how many balls they can get to stick. This is a fun way to get some extra energy out and keep kids busy on a rainy day when they can’t spend much time outdoors.

5. Create a Labyrinth

Have a large open space in your home or on the patio? Use masking tape to create an elaborate maze that kids can walk through. Then time them to see how fast they can get to the end. Kids love mazes and a life sized one is plenty of fun.

Don’t have a big space? Miniaturize your tape maze and make it big enough for their Lego people or Hot Wheels cars to follow. Either way, it’s a lot of fun that they will thoroughly enjoy . . . and all it took was a roll of tape.

Masking tape comes in a wide variety of colors and designs, so if you want to try some fun activities like those above, you might consider stocking up.